We had so much fun at Preschool Storytime today! First, we read Say Hello Like This! by Mary Murphy, practicing our animal sounds and then talking about some of the different ways people say hello. Hola! Bonjour! Ciao! Aloha!

After some fun with shaker eggs, we moved on to Stephanie Calmenson’s Jazzmatazz! A tiny mouse escapes the cold by sneaking into a house through a crack in the floor. He quickly makes his way to the piano and starts playing jazz, getting the other animals and people in the house to play music, too. This book got us playing the piano, banging our drums, fiddling like that famous cat, and tapping our toes to the beat! Rhythm and rhyme help young children hear the different syllables in language and musical picturebooks are some of my favorites.

Next we read a short nonfiction book, I Notice Animals in the Fall by Mari Schuh. We learned some of the different ways animals get ready for winter, like gathering lots of extra food, migrating to warmer weather, growing thicker fur, or even sleeping through the winter, like bears.

After learning about hibernation we had to read a story about a bear, of course. What better choice than Holly Surplice’s About a Bear?

Next we went on a bear hunt with a flannel story! We used the flannel board instead of a book, but there is a great picturebook version by Michael Rosen. There are many different versions of this classic all over the internet – check out Michael Rosen performing it on Youtube!

After our bear hunt, we went on a leaf hunt, gathering colorful fall leaves from different types of trees:

Thanks for joining me for storytime – see you next week!

~*Nicole